100% Pure Australian Beeswax Candles

Implementing the “No Arseholes Policy”

… [if you’re American, you may know this as the No Assholes Rule… we spell differently here so that you can tell who can spell and who can’t…]

My recent trip across the Nullarbor with Mitch created many opportunities for long conversations (hell for Mitch, heaven for me)! One of the subjects which created much hilarity was about nightmare customers. Like every business, we’ve both had a few. Mitch told me that his company had a “no arseholes policy”. [I thought the policy brilliant. I thought Mitch brilliant. When I told him yesterday that I’d had cause to implement the policy and just how brilliant he was, he told me that the author was Robert Sutton from Harvard Business Review. I must have missed that article. I now think Robert Sutton is brilliant. I still think Mitch is funny.]

Anyhow, so, yesterday I deployed the rule. What gold. The lion roared. Talking about feeling empowered. The very rude retailer will no longer be stocking Queen B candles.

These are direct, word for word, quotes from our email exchange:

Retailer: “i just received stock and sadly 4 large beehives are slightly damaged”

Queen B: “Please send a photograph of any damaged stock… we’ll get them picked up… and send another pack”

Retailer: “They are slightly damaged, the bee’s are stuck to the bags and have chipped off.. a photo would’nt (sic) show the full extent of the damage…”

Queen B: “What would you like me to do?”

Retailer: “Replace!” (that was the entire email by the way)

Queen B: “Then please send a photograph of the damaged items as requested”

Retailer: “…You (sic) completely out of line”

Ironic really.

Apart from the obvious angst that these sorts of things cause, it is just entirely unnecessary. Thankfully given the nature of what we sell, we primarily attract gorgeous, lovely, thinking customers who send beautiful emails daily that nourish us and keep us going.

So let your inner lion roar. Life’s too short to be someone else’s punching bag. Better still, get it off your chest. Share with us your deployment of the “no arseholes policy”.

And to the myriad of wonderful people who engage with us every day… thank you from the bottom of our hearts. Your emails are read out loud to the team. Your calls are shared over tea. Your stories are shared with the neighbours in our industrial block at “Slow Cooker Thursday” lunches. Your words get us up in the morning and lull us to sleep at night. I LOVE youse all.

As an antidote, I recently had the opportunity to take my 4 year old niece to ballet. Puts it all in perspective really.

I wish I’d known about the book when it was first published. I’ve been through 3 arsehole infested workplaces since then – though I must say all 3 places had lovely people too. I appear to be too soft for most workplaces. However my shadow doesn’t think I am. After discovering how much manipulation someone had done, I left the first place both guns blazing, burning bridges all the way. I think I’ve got a little better since then, but my dark side reared its very ugly head shortly before I left another. (Testament to Robert Sutton’s first reason for writing the book, “if you work for a jerk, odds are you will become one.) I now work for myself. Worse off financially, but better for it.

Oh joy – I just love all the comments. I have four (repeat 4) gorgeous granddaughters – aged 6 months to nearly 6 years and the photo you put up just made me laugh inside thinking about the 4 of them. All different in so many ways but all of them “the light of my life” !!!! Unfortunately we all at times seem to have to work for arseholes – the one in my life at the moment is my husbands business partner – now how am I supposed to get out of that !!! Working for one boss is bad enough – working for two with totally differing opinions is really difficult. Maybe it’s time “to burn the bridges ??”

Hey Lynda – I guess my message is about valuing yourself and speaking your truth. If that burns bridges, then so long as you are acting from integrity, I think you can feel comfortable (even though it NEVER feels completely congruous to burn a bridge). As Anita (well actually the author, Robert Sutton) so rightly put it – “if you work for a jerk, odds are you will become one”. If it is causing you angst, do something about it. Nothing like being with 4 beautiful, innocent souls (kids) to remind you of how simple life can be! Perhaps read the ‘epiphanies’ post (My Life As a Goldfish) for more inspiration to live your dream. xx